Friday

With flimsy evidence and tortured twists of the facts 10 days before the election, the gubernatorial campaign of Mike DeWine is attempting to portray Richard Cordray as out to raise Ohioans' taxes.

A new TV ad Friday from the Republican's camp claims "Cordray's votes raised taxes more than 100 times in two years" while the Democrat served one term in the Ohio House in 1991-92.

Cordray did indeed vote to approve one bipartisan bill that contained numerous tax increases, but the DeWine campaign now counts each hike as a separate vote. What the campaign doesn't say is that those increases were sought and signed into law by the late Republican Gov. George V. Voinovich while DeWine was his lieutenant governor.

There is no recorded protest at the time or since from DeWine.

The Senate was controlled by Republicans and the House by Democrats when House Bill 904 was approved in late 1992 to increase tobacco and alcohol taxes, create a new, higher income-tax bracket for Ohioans making more than $200,000 a year and expand the sales tax to cover janitorial and exterminating services, employment agencies and fitness center memberships. It also reduced a credit that retailers received for forwarding sales taxes to the state.

In addition to House Bill 904, DeWine's ad cited Cordray as voting to increase taxes through House Bill 248, which had nothing to do with taxes. Rather, it required railroads to keep their right-of-ways free of debris.

Asked for documentation showing that Cordray voted for more than 100 tax increases, campaign spokesman Joshua Eck responded, "In that bill, Richard Cordray voted for 100 increases, including the elimination of 75 different exemptions which increased sales tax." Eck did not respond to questions about House Bill 248 or DeWine's service as lieutenant governor during the tax vote.

The TV ad, featuring a combine mowing down corn representing Cordray as "harvesting" taxes, also takes a story in The Dispatch totally out of context and falsely attributes three words in the article — "harvest additional taxes" — as representing a direct quote from Cordray. It was not.

The full sentence says: "Cordray has said he will work with existing tax revenues to help pay for his priorities, spend down state budget surpluses, harvest additional taxes from sources such as increased collection of sales taxes on internet purchases, and could potentially tap the $2.7 billion state rainy day fund."

In an email to supporters, the Republican Governors Association also took the story out of context, failing to note the part about how the GOP claims on the cost of Cordray's plans had little foundation.

Cordray has consistently said he will not increase taxes if elected governor Nov. 6.

"The claims made in this ad are false and misleading, much like Mike DeWine's most recent claims on his health-care record. But let's be clear: Rich is the only candidate in this race who has continuously committed to not raising taxes. When Rich was in the legislature, it was Lt. Gov Mike DeWine who was pushing for tax increases," said Cordray campaign spokeswoman Christina Freundlich.

The new DeWine ad also claims that Cordray would increase income taxes by 46 percent, an unsupported claim made by House Speaker Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell, and Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, on Oct. 8 as they claimed Cordray's spending proposals could cost $4 billion a year.

They provided no evidence to support that claim. And despite promising to give reporters documentation to back up the claims, they never provided it during the following week. Jason Mauk of the Republican Senate Campaign Committee said Friday that due to an error, the supporting document never was emailed to reporters.

The document provided by Mauk on Friday, which he said was prepared by former state budget staffers, consists of slightly more than two pages and makes assumptions about Cordray's proposals, and the next state budget, which may or may not be accurate.

Secretary of State Jon Husted, DeWine's running mate, invoked the $4 billion figure at a Columbus rally Thursday, claiming that if Cordray were elected, it would cost every Ohio household $3,000 in additional taxes. He provided no evidence to support that statement.

Campaign spokesman Eck said it was a "conservative estimate" based on four years, but he did not provide requested documentation on how the figure was reached.

In TV ads and stump speeches, Republicans and their allies also have claimed that taxes were increased $800 million while Cordray served as attorney general in 2009-10 while Democrat Ted Strickland served as governor amid the 2008 recession. A tax move approved by lawmakers delayed the last year of a phased-in income tax cut. It did not increase taxes but rather delayed the reduction by one year. Cordray had nothing to do with it.

Accusing Democrats of wanting tax hikes is a long-held tactic for Ohio Republicans. They called Democratic Gov. Mike DiSalle "tax hike Mike" during his term from 1959-1963 — although that claim was true, since DiSalle did raise taxes. In 2010 the cry was "Tax Hike Ted" for Strickland's fee increases and one-year tax-cut delay.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow

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